Improvisation Italian-Style

The Salty Side of Cantaloupe

Cantaloupe and Tomato Salad with Black Olives and Tarragon
Cantaloupe Salad with Prosciutto, Frisée, and Basil
Spaghetti with Cantaloupe and Hot Chilies

My grandfather always salted his cantaloupe. As a child I found this weird. It seemed so old-world for an elegantly turned-out man who had in many ways become an urbane New Yorker. When I got a little older and was introduced to prosciutto with melon, I reasoned that his salty cantaloupe was likely a Southern Italian peasant version of this wonderful pairing. There are several dishes like this in the Southern repertoire. One, called pasta che sardi a mari, translating roughly as pasta with the sardines still in the sea, is a cut-rate but delicious vegetarian version of the elaborate Sicilian pasta con le sarde, and it’s a good example of the Southerner’s ability to create elegance from poverty (the pasta includes wild fennel, raisins, pine nuts, and sometimes tomato or cauliflower).

In any case the salt and cantaloupe pairing is an inspired one, the salt heightening the sweetness and fruitiness of the melon, making it taste even more like a cantaloupe than before. In these three recipes I explore that marriage, mixing cantaloupe with other salty and savory touches such as olives, fresh herbs, tomatoes, olive oil, hot chilies, garlic, prosciutto, and of course plain salt. I’ve stopped short of considering anchovies, an ingredient that I tend to use with just about anything but that’s just too fishy to go with a fruit, I think. I do like cantaloupe with shrimp, though. Try adding a handful of cubed cantaloupe to a cool, olive-oil-based shrimp salad. Very refreshing.

Summer herbs are very good additions to cantaloupe. The light, leafy ones seem to mate best with the melon’s sweetness and mild acidity. Tarragon, basil, parsley, and mint are my favorite choices. I’ve also had luck with herb combinations; basil with a touch of tarragon, and parsley with a few mint leaves are both lovely together (and work well with honeydew melon too). I love a touch of hot chili with cantaloupe too. The flavor reminds me a little of Tex-Mex salsas that contain mango, a mix I’ve always found interesting. Tomato with cantaloupe is also a surprisingly excellent duo. I’ve paired these two ingredients in a simple salad and, in a more experimental moment, with spaghetti. But I’ve also kept my Spaghetti with Cantaloupe and Hot Chilies Italian by adding garlic, basil, pine nuts, and good olive oil (resisting the temptation to create some kind of pan-Latin American pasta dish). The spaghetti really tastes wonderful, I think.

Now is the time to find great cantaloupe at your farmers’ market. My way of telling if a cantaloupe is ready to eat is by smelling it. If it smells like a cantaloupe, it’s ripe. If it smells like nothing, pass it by. They do ripen some after you get them home, but they’re best when you buy them fully ripe and juicy.

Cantaloupe and Tomato Salad with Black Olives and Tarragon

Black olives and tarragon make for an exquisite flavor fusion. I use them often in chicken stews, on lamb chops, and with sautéed zucchini, but they also work really well with sweet or acidic ingredients, as I discovered when I included them in this simple salad.

On a large salad plate, alternate slices of tomato with cantaloupe. Scatter on the red onion and olives. Sprinkle with salt, and grind on some fresh black pepper. Give everything a tiny squeeze of lemon juice, and then drizzle with good olive oil. Scatter on the tarragon. Serve right away.

Lay three slices of cantaloupe each on the perimeters of four salad plates, and give them a sprinkling of salt.

Place the frisée, shallot, prosciutto, and basil in a salad bowl. Drizzle with enough olive oil to coat everything lightly (probably a little less than two tablespoons). Add the lemon juice and zest, a tiny pinch of salt (remember that the prosciutto is salty), and a generous amount of fresh black pepper. Toss gently and mound on the salad plates inside the cantaloupe slices. Serve right away.

Spaghetti with Cantaloupe and Hot Chilies

The chili here brings out the sweetness of the cantaloupe, and the tomato adds acidity and juiciness, to make for a really elegant play of flavors. I like to serve this as a palate opener for a summer dinner, maybe followed by a grilled fish.

Welcome to Ericademane.com

I am a chef, food writer, and teacher who specializes in improvisational Italian cooking. I am the author of The Flavors of Southern Italy and Pasta Improvvisata, as well as Williams-Sonoma Pasta, which is available at Williams-Sonoma stores. A member of the Association of Culinary Professionals and the Italian-based International Slow Food Movement, I live in New York City. I offer private cooking classes, which you can learn about here.